iTSC IT Managed Services

WHY IT SHOULD BE PROFILING WORKERS

Why IT should be profiling workers

The idea of a one-size-fits-all computer is somewhere between quaint and archaic. So how do you satisfy the needs of your employees short of giving each of them a credit card and telling them to choose their own PC?

The answer is segmentation. It’s more tailored than one-size-fits all but less chaotic than treating every employee as a snowflake.

Here are five types of employees to cater for.

1. Travelers

If you have employees who travel for work, they need access to people, programs, and data from anywhere. Many of them are likely to take multiple devices on the road with them.

Their needs mean two things:

Portability

Connectivity

When giving them a choice of devices, you need to be thinking about lightweight, portable devices, preferably with long battery life. And information needs to be in the cloud and accessible by VPN, so they don’t need to be too worried about Wi-Fi security.

2. Remote workers

More than half of workers spend some time—or even all the time—working away from the office. They might be turning their home into an extension of your office or getting things done in a coffee shop. What they need is to be self-sufficient.

The occasional remote worker has needs similar to those of the traveler. But if your remote worker’s home is their office, that might mean a whole office setup: desktop, printer, and VOIP phone. And they’re going to need help running it, which means making it easy to access support.

You need to be thinking about security (VPN), accessibility (cloud), and communication (video) to keep your homeworkers connected.

3. Desk drivers

The number of workers not coming in 9 to 5, Monday to Friday is staggering considering what life looked like only five years ago. However, the majority of us are still coming into a desk at the office some, if not all, of the time.

Your mostly deskbound worker wants a comfortable space with room to move and speed. They won’t accept the compromises they would on the road when it comes to connectivity and productivity (think dual monitors for maximum performance).

4. Roamers

They’re not working remotely, but they’re not working at their desks all the time, either. These are the worker bees always buzzing between meetings. And they want to take their laptops with them. They need them to take notes, share information, and run presentations.

They’re looking for a seamless transition from desk to meeting room. They need to be able to connect without being a dongle ninja or having to carry a bag of adapters. And no arm-strain, thank you: lightweight is the order of the day.

5. The specialists

These might be individuals in the organization—designers, video editors, Photoshoppers—or it might be everyone above, each of whom has a specialized need accounting for a small part of their technology requirements.

Knowing what everyone in the company needs technology for will help you to map your needs and create your own personas. You get the kudos for being flexible; your employees get to get their job done.